Ask Toronto Croats to call the National Post editorial board andask them to run the enclosed letter to the editor from Luka Misetic.Here is the editorial board's phone number: (416) 383-2300.

July 28, 2003

To The Editor:

I am the attorney for General Ante Gotovina, the subject of an editorialpublished in today's National Post titled, "Fair Play in the Balkans."I wish to correct the record on behalf of my client because youreditorial contains numerous factual errors.

Contrary to the assertion made in your editorial, Croatian soldiers didnot "force 200,000 Serbs from their homes in Croatia [in] the largestethnic cleansing in the Balkan wars." It is virtually uncontested thatmost of the 200,000 Serbs in Croatia left their homes on orders fromtheir own Croatian Serb leadership. Testimony introduced by prosecutorsin the Hague in the case of Slobodan Milosevic indicates that Milosevicand the Croatian Serb leadership purposely evacuated 200,000 Serbs fromCroatia in an effort to cement the results of ethnic cleansing byresettling these civilians in areas like Srebrenica, which had beenethnically cleansed by Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic andforces under their control only three weeks earlier. U.S. Ambassador toCroatia Peter Galbraith testified last month before the InternationalTribunal that Croatian forces did NOT ethnically cleanse the Serbpopulation from Croatia. Accordingly, your allegation is inaccurate.

It is true that Canadian military officers, including Col. AndrewLeslie, have made various accusations against General Gotovina-includingthat the town of Knin had been "excessively shelled" and that forcesunder General Gotovina's command had intentionally shelled the hospitalin Knin, all in an alleged effort to scare the civilian population intofleeing. Col. Leslie further claimed that there were a "large number ofbodies in the streets." However, absent from your editorial is anymention of the fact that Col. Leslie's testimony has been largelydiscredited by members of the international media who confirmed that UNclaims of high civilian casualties and excessive shelling of Knin werein fact exaggerated. The claim that the Knin hospital had been shelledhas in fact been proven false. Human Rights Watch reported in 1996 thatthe claims of the Canadian officers were exaggerated and may haveresulted from the fact that "U.N. military and civilian personnel hadbeen confined to their barracks or bases by Croatian soldiers and thuswere unable to witness many events directly." Canadian militarypersonnel throughout its deployment as peacekeepers in the Balkans wasnotorious for its slanted, pro-Serb reporting of events on the ground.Indeed, Canadian Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, in charge of U.N. peacekeeping inBosnia in 1992, is infamous for his claim that the beseiged BosnianMuslims were "shelling themselves" in Sarajevo in an effort to garnerinternational sympathy. After his retirement from the Canadianmilitary, General MacKenzie went to work as a paid lobbyist in NorthAmerica for Serb sympathizers. Why this pro-Serb bias existed in theCanadian military is a subject that will be explored at the appropriatetime and in the appropriate forum.

Much evidence has come to light in recent weeks proving that Gen.Gotovina was falsely charged by the Hague Prosecutor, including thetestimony of Mr. Galbraith. If Gen. Gotovina is in fact innocent, thenthe Prosecutor has an ethical obligation to withdraw the indictment.Should the Serb leadership claim bias (as your editorial suggests), sucha claim can be easily rebutted by this fact: the Hague Tribunal haswithdrawn sixteen indictments against individuals who had never beenarrested or brought to the Tribunal. All sixteen of these individualswere Serbs. Thus, if anyone can claim bias on the part of the HagueTribunal, it is the Croats and not the Serbs.

Sincerely,

Luka S. Misetic, Esq.Chicago, IL USA

Enclosed is the article:National Post (Canada) July 28, 2003 Monday National Edition

BODY:Eight years ago, Canadian peacekeepers witnessed one of the late 20thcentury's most brutal attempts at ethnic cleansing. In August, 1995, over aspan of just 64 hours, Croatian soldiers forced 200,000 Serbs from theirhomes in Croatia -- the largest single act of ethnic cleansing of all theBalkan wars between 1991 and 1995. The military action -- dubbed OperationStorm -- involved the Croats' entire 100,000-man army. Canadian soldiersstationed in the area documented the Croats' efficiency. Colonel AndrewLeslie, for example, reported that of the 40,000 people who lived in theSerb stronghold of Knin, barely 1,000 remained once the operation ended.

It took some time, but two years ago, the UN's International CriminalTribunal (ICT) began seriously looking into claims regarding war crimescommitted during Operation Storm. In 2001, the ICT issued an indictmentagainst Ante Gotovina, a Croatian general with an allegedly central role inthe operation. But Gen. Gotovina promptly went underground. Lawyers workingon his behalf say he is willing to answer questions from the ICT -- but onlyif it first drops its indictment.

Unfortunately, the Croatian government has failed to fully co-operate inbringing Gen. Gotovina to justice. Though the Croatian Interior Ministry hasissued a warrant for his arrest (and a bounty of $80,000 for informationleading to his arrest), authorities have done little to apprehend him. Onereason for this is that ultra-nationalist Croats see the general as a hero.In May, Gen. Gotovina even had the audacity to send an official message ofsupport to a gathering of 15,000 Croatian nationalists. They had met tomourn the death of Janko Bobetko, another general who defied an ICT order toanswer questions about his own involvement in possible crimes againsthumanity by Croatian forces.

The case of Gen. Gotovina is important not only as a matter of justice, butof politics as well. The Croats and Serbs have had their share of murderousfeuds, and the Serbs would be understandably outraged if the world communityaggressively prosecuted allegations of Serb atrocities while passing overthose in which Serbs were victims. In 2001, the ICT formally demanded thatthe Serbs force former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to appear fortrial on charges of war crimes. NATO member states, including Canada and theUnited States, put a full-court press on the Serbs to hand Mr. Milosevicover -- and even made his handover a condition of economic aid. As a result,Mr. Milosevic's successor, Vojislav Kostunica, duly served him up to TheHague.

Those same NATO states should make a similar effort to get Croatia to secureGen. Gotovina. He's been allowed to run free long enough.